It was in the summer of 1961 that my request to visit my grandmother in Kiel had been rejected without justification – that was customary in the German Democratic Republic. The alternative was to visit my aunt in East Berlin and friends in West Berlin. Despite several checks and interviews, the police allowed us through, to leave the Federal Republic of Germany forever at a time when thousands of GDR citizens were traveling via Berlin to West Germany. I decided to stay where I felt at home. On the morning of Aug. 13, I was stunned to witness the start of construction of the “anti-fascist protective wall” – according to the official language. The cement-block separation of the allegedly democratic state of the German Democratic Republic lasted for 28 years. The wall affected and shaped my life, but it has not been able to limit the growing urge for human rights and freedom. Walls can separate bodies but never spirit and soul.
-Gisela Kallenbach, former member of the European Parliament and member of the Parliament of Saxony
A part of my family comes from Silesia, a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in modern-day Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. We were expelled to various German zones after the Second World War. We often received visitors – unfortunately always one-sided due to the inner-German border. I understood the reason why with a family trip to Berlin. From the landmark television tower in the eastern sector I could see the wall – and the world behind it. There were no limits to my eyes, yet this part of Germany seemed unreachable for us in the “East.” In view of the massive border protection, crowds of people rose up who believed in the removal of the wall. Unimaginable at that time – individuals united into masses of people, who brought down the wall and thus an entire system. Even today it is almost unbelievable.
-Frank Schmidt, Leipzig, Germany
Prayer
Lord, just as you breathed a spirit of hope upon the people of East and West Germany – when a wall of separation stood tall, casting shadows of doubt and division – pour out that same spirit upon us now as we seek to topple the walls that separate us from each other. Amen.
This story and prayer are part of the ELCA liturgy “Breaking Down Walls” that commemorates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We gathered and participated in this liturgy at Spirit in the Hills on November 9, 2019.